Predator teach in needed

Last weekend I fished a couple of matches on the river welland in Spalding and had to aid on both days youngsters who had difficulties with pike.
The first day a young lad was seen trying to land a pike he'd caught. No landing net, no forceps, basically all he had was rod n reel. I had to jump in the water to unhook the pike for him.
The second day the same thing happened and again only the basic gear. One of the lads lent him the use of his rather small landing net and we found a chap with forceps as the two sets of trebles were just behind the teeth.
I love my match fishing, yet I don't like to see this happening or go away from the bank knowing it will happen again. We had our lady junior secretary give them a slight rollocking and she asked them to attend the junior matches next year. This is fine but these junior matches cater only really for the coarse match juniors/anglers.
I'd like to see a proper teach in/meet done through school advertising, ideally a predator company sponsor deal and it would be great to get someone a little more well known from the predator angling world.
I don't want to discourage these young people from enjoying our sport and I know that if they want to fish for pike they will, even if it means going where we don't fish just to avoid us moaning at them.
If there is someone willing to help with maybe a session one evening, ideally in the school holidays next summer I would be very gratefull.
I know its the wrong time of year, we would get more youngsters attending then though and it would hopefully teach them the correct ways and maybe get them kitted out correctly.
E-mail us if you can help or post here.
Thanks

Mick, I'm sure that the Pike Anglers Club (PAC) would be keen to try and help you out.

Your points are very good ones, and I've experienced the same sort of thng myself before.

If you have a look at the Predator forum on this site, you'll find that Budgie Burness is organising his own pike teach-in at Wraysbury in the new year.

One of my local clubs, the Farnham Angling Society, actually prohibits anyone (even experienced pike anglers) from fishing for pike on their waters until they've attended one of their own pike teach-ins to make sure everyone knows what they're doing. I went to one of these recently, at it was supported by the PAC, and extremely well-run it was too. There were over a hundred people that turned up !

As I say Mick, please contact the PAC. They are organised on a regional basis, and the local Regional Organisation (RO) will probably only be too keen to help you out. The PAC Secretary at secretary@pacgb.com will be able to provide you with a local contact.

Let us know how you get on !

Its free water, no club owns the stretch I'm on about and is through the town. Its a brilliant place for anyone to have their first taste of the sport and for free!
Thanks for the details, I'll get on to them.

I am a member of Farnham Angling Society and think the pike teach ins are a great idea. My only problem with this is that i live in South Yorkshire and the near 400 mile round trip is a bit too much for my pike fishing permit, but it got me thinking. Wouldnt it be a good idea if all clubs ran the same sort of courses supported by the PAC so everyone knows how to handle and unhook pike, not to mention having the right equipment for the job. When you have been on a course you should get a card that all clubs should accept. All responsible fishery owners could then insist on seeing this card before allowing anybody to fish for predators. I know this wouldnt stop people fishing free waters without the right equipment but maybe the EA could make it law to carry such a card to predator fish anywhere.

Once you teach at least 10 or so young kids each year, it might only need to be once per year, you'll soon have a greater percentage doing it the right way. If each one of them kids goes and tells his mates how good it was, what he learnt etc, you'll soon get alot educated on it all.
Our local club does brilliant for the kids and the local tackle shop helps out alot too. What we do need is something done for the predator young anglers, most of them coarse fish anyway, its just an extension of what they already do.
Its not a difficult thing to organise and with a known predator angler, we might get a decent turn out for the first get together. I'm sure some of the parents and older ones can learn a bit about it all too.

Mick,

The problem is with all our local clubs is that they don't give a **** about predators or predator anglers. You're more likely to find a pike tossed up the bank to die than find one being lovingly returned. Just attend an AGM or look at the rules in any of the local club books and you'll see how anti predator they are.

I'd be more than willing to help out but I'm afraid laws, rules, modern soceity don't make teaching kids very easy I'm afraid and to be perfectly honest I've seen more bad handling from adults than any kids (and that's discounting the 'knock it on the head and put it in a plastic bag'crowd that seem to have multiplied in number this last year or two).

Sash, call me naive if you like, but wouldn't teaching the kids be a great way to try and overcome any "anti-predator" sentiment in clubs where that exists ? If there are some adults who just won't listen, then concentrate on the next generation and get them excited about looking after predators.

I understand your point about there being issues with teaching kids, but most clubs should have people who have the right certifications involved in looking after youngsters (can't remember what that's called right now), and if you or the PAC got involved in conjuction with those people, then teaching should be fine.

That's my point though Steve. The local people who would have the right certifications are usually those that don't care about predators.

Mick, who looks after the junior section nowadays, is it still Rick?

Thats why I'm doing it without asking them Sash. The Junior side is great, to be honest I don't think they have ever considered it as most of them just don't bother with the predators.
I got the impression when the lads caught the pike at the weekend that some of the lads would of been quite happy to leave them to handle the pike themselves, maybe in the hope it did'nt swim off.
Dawn Morley looks after the juniors and she does a great job of it too, she also gets alot of help from the other parents. Her partner looks after the senior section and occasionally lends a hand with the juniors.

Regarding the AGM, last year I wanted to bring up the Bloodworm thing again, missed the meeting though. I'd like to try that again next april as well as bringing up the fact that the predator anglers are probably donating more to the club in day ticket sales than the match/coarse anglers. Of course I can see most of the more serious match anglers on the commitee might not think alot to it, but its tough really. If we can't do it on the Spalding water, I'll ask one of the other local clubs. Dawn likes the idea anyway and not many argue with her, lol.

Have a natter with the King's Lynn club - not far down the road from you, hold an expanding series of junior teach-ins etc.

E-mail me if you need contacts.

Mick,

I'd be more than willing to help mate if you get something organized but I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for the club to change any rules to help predator anglers.

I'll email you my contact numbers and we'll have to have a day out soon.

Thankyou very much Sash, be a little like old times but we'd be showing the young uns this time round, lol.
What rules would you think may need changing or bringing in to help the predator anglers?

More than 2 rods allowed (with the appropriate rod licenses of course), coarse deads allowed and a better policy (at least showing some understanding of fish and fish movement) toward the waters they control.

The livebait ruling also seems daft to me but then it is in place almost everywhere I fish nowadays anywhere.

The more than 2 rods allowed was brought in when the baliff reported a few chaps fishing on the counter drain with rods set up well apart from each other. Was taking them too long to reach rods they had runs on, the rule was put in to protect the fish. I'm sure I was at that AGM actually and had to agree with what was being said.
I've not got a problem with dead baiting of course fish if they are taken from the water they are being used on. Again another rule put in to stop the bad anglers taking the pee I'd say.
Those two would be difficult to swing round again, but with the teach in sessions we might stand a better chance of sorting them out. I suppose a maximum distance of I don't know how long would be better between rods.
The livebaiting rule remains a hot topic and ought to be allowed just to show we all stick together as anglers. Works for us against the anti's in a way.

The coarse deads rule tells me all I need to know about the club - diseases cannot be transferred from a dead fish to another water (indeed with the proliferation of roach diseases such as black spot, it's actually very difficult to introduce a new disease from livebaits too except where carp are involved).

There are EA rules regarding rod distances (which are a bit daft) which should have been implemented by the baliff.

Why sanction all predator anglers due to the bad angling of a few? If the club worked on that principle throughout we wouldn't have any anglers (especially matchmen) as some of the fishing and fish handling I've witnessed on club waters over the years has been a joke. Again, it's the view of a match orientated club that don't understand or want to understand specimen hunters and especially predator anglers.

I have never been pike fishing in all my years spent angling. I have some spinning rods and some lures and the rest of the gear but I won't go until someone comes with me and shows me the ropes, or lets me go with them and watch.

I'm not frightened of the pike but I am frightened I can't get the hooks out if they are deep hooked, being a novice it might well happen and thats why I won't go.

I used to teach the kids at the local lake about coarse fishing but nobody ever teaches them about pike fishing, nor me for that matter, in fact I don't think I've ever seen an ad about pike fishing courses.